Twice in the past week I have brought all the stuff up to the house from the car after work including my breast pump and then forgot to take the milk out of the bag and put it in the fridge. I had to toss 8 oz yesterday when I realized they were still in the bag. I felt like an idiot because that was the second time I did it. I don't know how I let that happen. I think I have been really distracted and out of sync with my normal routine because Lorelei's dad got home about 5 days ago.

My sympathies!!! I mope for days over the loss of even one or two ounces!!!

I just finished my second day back at work - I was super nervous about how much/when I would get to pump, but so far it is working out OK! found out that baby eats about 3 ounces every 3 hours so I only need to leave around 10 ounces for him during the day. PLUS I was ultra excited to get my second breast pump in the mail from my sister. One for work and one for home so I don't have to be lugging it back and forth!!!!

So I think my fengugreek kicked in. The most I have ever pumped from one breast is 4.5 ounces. This morning after baby boy had a marathon session on the left breast I pumped 1 oz from the left and 7.5 ounces from the right...and I could have kept going but was getting sore from the pump.

Also just a PSA. I bought a fenugreek tincture because it was the only reasonably priced veg version at the local stores. VILE tasting. I threw up the first dose because I wasn't prepared for the hideousness...really would have been better to wait the few days until the vegetarian capsules arrived in the mail ;)

Ok, so it turns out that my boobs killing me every time Ada latches is not a pms symptom. I'm pregnant!!! It's way early (4.5 weeks) and I'm still in a bit of shock. One of my main concerns now is how much Ada is nursing and if I should start attempting to cut it back. She still nurses a couple of times at night and usually a minimum of five times during the day, especially since she's teething now. I have no idea if I should start introducing other milk at this point. I know that my supply might go down in a few months but honestly I just can't picture her self weaning. But obviously I'm going to eventually be in labor and she's not going to be able to nurse then... That and I wonder how much of a toll its going to take on my body being pregnant and nursing a ton. I really had no intention of weaning any time soon and it makes me sad to think it might happen now. Sorry for babbling on! I'm just a bit thrown off (but of course still excited). Any nursing while pregnant advice/stories?

Last edited by sashi on Sat Sep 29, 2012 7:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

i have not heard that many positive nursing while pregnant stories, but it is possible. i think almost everyone feels a little sadness and uncertainty about weaning, even people who are weaning much older toddlers and kids. so i don't think you should take your sadness as a sign that you shouldn't wean. i was 100% done with nursing, and i still surprised myself with how sad and sudden it seemed to be when she finally stopped. i do think that the exhaustion of early pregnancy and parenting a toddler would make me want to wean... i really don't know how i would have gotten through this pregnancy if i were also trying to meet the nutritional/energy requirements for nursing a toddler.

sorry to be so negative! i'm just trying to imagine nursing tzipi with how tired and touched out and cranky i've been... the touched out feeling started getting especially bad once i started feeling the baby move all the time in the 2nd trimester. i DO know of a couple of people who have had great pregnant and tandem nursing experiences though. it can be done, definitely, if it's something you want.

I continued to nurse the Emperor through the first half of my pregnancy with the Magician. What was interesting to me was that he persisted through my milk nearly drying up-- continued another 2 months at least-- and then he just decided one day that he was through.

I was lucky not to have a whole lot of morning sickness etc the second time. But nursing E was actually a relief in the exhaustion phase because it was like woooo, we can just lay down for a few minutes.

But nursing E was actually a relief in the exhaustion phase because it was like woooo, we can just lay down for a few minutes.

see, i was thinking of that as being a definite positive. but then i remember how much i have been like "oh for the love of god please stop touching me oh my god why are you rubbing my face and kneeing me in the belly arghhhhhhh" for pretty much this whole pregnancy and then i think that my "woo, let's lie down now" solution of unlimited popsicles and my neighbour totoro on repeat was pretty effective too.

I'm not having a super great time nursing right now. Not that I really want to stop, but it's kind of like: I swore I'd do my darnedest to nurse V for a year, it's been more than that, and I'm like, you're on borrowed time, kid, so you don't get to pinch any part of my body you can reach with your spindly little arms while you nurse.

I'm pretty sure she's about to cut a canine or two, from the drooling and biting and other signs, so maybe it's that, but man. When she pinches I detach her and set her down and tell her that pinching hurts and she can either nurse without pinching or pinch the carpet while sitting on the floor, but she screams like she's being tortured when I do this.

If i ever say I miss nursing, just stick that staple remover thingie on my nipple and press away while yelling at me. Leela must have not been feeling well because it was bitebitebite all night. Vampire baby!

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

Ok, so it turns out that my boobs killing me every time Ada latches is not a pms symptom. I'm pregnant!!! It's way early (4.5 weeks) and I'm still in a bit of shock. One of my main concerns now is how much Ada is nursing and if I should start attempting to cut it back. She still nurses a couple of times at night and usually a minimum of five times during the day, especially since she's teething now. I have no idea if I should start introducing other milk at this point. I know that my supply might go down in a few months but honestly I just can't picture her self weaning. But obviously I'm going to eventually be in labor and she's not going to be able to nurse then... That and I wonder how much of a toll its going to take on my body being pregnant and nursing a ton. I really had no intention of weaning any time soon and it makes me sad to think it might happen now. Sorry for babbling on! I'm just a bit thrown off (but of course still excited). Any nursing while pregnant advice/stories?

Congratulations! I nursed Beetroot on demand throughout my entire pregnancy with Raygold and had no problems (although his poop got a little wetter once my milk turned into colostrum). I even nursed when I was in early labour! It was handy nursing in tandem after I had Raygold because Beetroot could deflate my boobs when they were about to explodey and I could do a boobie-threesome (those were funny, and, yes, I have photos) and chill Beety down when he was having a public meltdown. This was over 2 years ago and I continued to nurse both of them until about 4-5 months ago when Beetroot turned 4 and pretty much stopped nursing (I'm still nursing Raygold, although he doesn't nurse as much).My advice is to keep on nursing if it's working out for you -- she might self wean once your supply drops/turns to colostrum (which is probably fine if you're cool with it). I had to remind Beet every so often at that stage (all I had to do was whip out a boob and he was on it), but once my milk came in (after Raygold's birth, obviously), he was right back at it.

Thanks everyone! It's nice to hear both sides. I'm not going to change anything now, but we'll see how things go in a month or two. If anything I'm thinking I might need to stop nursing her to sleep at some point so she gets out of that habit.

coldandsleepy wrote:

What was interesting to me was that he persisted through my milk nearly drying up-- continued another 2 months at least-- and then he just decided one day that he was through.

I can totally see Ada doing this. She loves her boob too much to just give up!

Congrats sashi! If you have a LLL group near you, they would probably have a wealth of info about nursing while pg/tandem nursing etc. It sounds really hard, but it definitely can be done many times. There are 3 women in our local group doing this right now.

annak, I feel your pain! Freya just yesterday cut into a spot where there was a tiny scab nearly healed from a cut maybe a week or so ago. I think it's a tooth (think we can see some white coming through), but holy shiitake it hurts. Pinching all over, including leaving marks...fingers up the nose, etc. (and oh my god..pulling nipples with teeth!) When we switch to the crib soon, we're going to mostly give up lie-down feeding as she's just a maniac most times. It makes me sad because she loved it so much when we were having our struggles, and being able to nurse this way is really probably the only thing that allowed us to continue. But yeah, the times they are a changin' :)

I'm wondering about others of you who nursed past a year or so...how often did/do you nurse during the day/night? If Freya doesn't bite my nipples off, I'd like to continue on with nursing until two unless she self weans. We definitely have to do less during the night, but this is when she is most interested in nursing! During the day, she's already in that toddler mode where she gets so busy playing that she doesn't realize that she's hungry (or thirsty or tired, etc.). I try to remember to offer her boobs every 3ish hours, but she can usually go longer, especially if it's a good food day. I read somewhere that some toddler moms do boobies along with snacks or instead of snacks. I know we've got a couple of months before Freya hits a year, but I want to make sure we're doing our best to stock up the boobie milk during the day so maybe she'll be less hungry at night. (though I suspect most of the night feeding is emotional/security related)

What do you all do with breastmilk aside from direct feeding via boob/bottle? Smoothies? Pudding? I have some milk leftover from feeding Freya tonight (stuffed up and having trouble with nursing, thought bottle might be easier). I was thinking about tossing it in with some avocado and strawberries for a smoothie in the morning. I could just try it in a cup too. Wondering about this partly because we have a nice stash in the freezer now and don't seem to have a place to send it. The earliest bags are from probably the end of June, so in another couple of months, I'd want to use it up.

Also, for those exclusively breastfeeding, do you give your babies bottles sometimes just so they will be able to take one if needed? I gave Freya the one tonight and she spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out what it was. She drank maybe two ounces, but then got a bit bored I think and pawed me for boobies. I'm sure she'd drink some milk from a cup, but at a much slower rate than she takes milk from boobs or used to from bottles. I'd like to have a good option for her if I leave her with dad sometimes. She also might have been less interested in the bottle because I was right there with her preferred delivery system.

I just nursed on demand -- with Beetroot, he was nursing 4-ish times a day by the time he was 1 and not much at night, if at all. I'm not sure how much Raygold nursed during the day at that age, but with him, as he got older, most of his nursing was at night.

I gave Beet bottles a few times (maybe a dozen, max?) because everybody said it was great to share bottle feeding with others and it was a great alternative to nursing in public. But I hated watching other people feed him and he was really really picky about the temperature of the milk and I more than got over my fear of nursing in public. Also, I hated the cleaning/sterilising. Boiling bottle parts got old fast and I wasn't going to buy a steriliser with the small amount of bottles I used. (I think there's some kind of microwave sterilisation you can do, but I don't have a microwave.)

I never bothered using bottles with Raygold.

...And there were a few times when he was older where I put my milk in a sippy cup for Beet. (I think I had hand-expressed once when Raygold was ill and wouldn't nurse for a few hours and my boobs were exploding.)

My supply is dropping and I am so bummed. I used to get 4oz total every 3 hours and now I am getting about 2. No doubt that this is due to my change in environment and ad hoc schedule influencing how well I stick to my pumping routine.

I am very grateful to have made it this far (8.5) months but would really love to make it to a year without supplementing. I've been below the recommended intake (in ounces) per day for some time but my baby has been (and still is) growing wonderfully, has lots of energy and is generally glowing. I haven't let myself get caught up in numbers since I have to pump for most feedings. But the decline is getting to me.

This week is going to be booby boot camp and if things don't start to improve then I'll be looking into formula supplementing. I have to remember that it's all about her getting the nutrients she needs and not start throwing myself a pity party.

Sarahboberra, are you sure that it's supply and not a pumping issue like seals or stress while pumping? If you want to try and boost supply, you could maybe throw in an extra pumping session. The more milk special blend capsules worked well for me too.

Supply issues are scary. I have frequent fluctuations for a day or two and each time I get a little freaked.

Refinnej, I just picked up the more milk special blend tincture this afternoon. I'm on that, fenugreek pills, blessed thistle pills and tea for good measures. I'm also going to watch what I eat and make sure it includes oats, apricots, greens, carrots, pecans, sweet potatoes, lots of calcium and water and dump my morning cup of coffee. And yes, I'm definitely doing extra pumping sessions. This is my life until I get results haha

I don't think that it is a seal issue on my pump...but I will look closer. I do think that it is because we've moved cross country and 2 months later are still crashing with my parents. They are awesome, but I am still a little anxious about where we'll be moving and getting work started. With our schedule out of whack, I'm not pumping as regularly as I should...sometimes my intervals get stretched. And baby girl is super easily distracted when nursing so that seems to go best for her morning milk, when she's still half asleep.

It is scary, but I have faith that I'll rebound at least a little. I will give it my all and go from there!

Oh, this is random but when I had a big drop back around Easter, one of the things I discovered (in a book that kimba recommended the title of which I'm failing to recall) was that eating very much mint can decrease supply too in some women. I'm not sure if it made a difference, but I switched toothpastes (which was cited in the book) since I was using one with real mint oil. Sounds silly, but maybe all those little things add up...drinking lots of water, thinking about your baby when pumping, eating oats, etc.